Oak Park woman says $1K was missing from account and bank wouldn't help

OAK PARK, Ill. (WLS) -- An Oak Park woman says someone stole more than $1,000 out of her bank account, but when she reported the fraud to her bank, she said they didn't do anything to help.

The woman said she was just trying to pay her tithes when she learned hundreds of dollars from her bank account vanished.

Latoria Bryant was raised in the church. She's a Christian woman and said she makes sure to pay her tithes no matter what.

"By giving God his 10 percent and everything else will fall in place," she said.

Conveniently, she said her church lets her pay her tithes online. But last month when she tried to pay, her transaction was denied.

"Something has to be wrong," Bryant said. "I immediately went to the Chime app."

Chime is an online-only bank. Consumers are mailed a Visa debit card and manage their accounts entirely from their smart phone. When Bryant checked, she said she saw six ATM withdrawals totaling $1002.50.

"I'm holding my card in my hand and I have not been out of the house, so this can't be," Bryant said.

She said she called the bank and learned the transactions came from an ATM in the Bronx in New York City. Problem is, she said she has never been to New York.

"Somebody is taking my money. My money's gone," Bryant said. "That's everything left. I can't pay the phone bill. I can't pay the light bill."

And after the bank's investigation, she received an email saying, "...We have concluded no error occurred. Therefore, no funds will be credited to your account and this claim is considered closed..."

"I didn't know how to go about getting my money back," Bryant said. "All I know is that the people that I trusted with my money have told me they aren't going to give me my money."

So Bryant reached out to the ABC7 I-Team. After reaching out to Chime, a spokesperson responded saying, "While we cannot disclose private information about our member's Chime account, please be assured we take matters like this very seriously and our member services and dispute teams are currently investigating the situation...."

The very next day, Bryant got an email from Chime, the email she'd been praying for.

"They did find that an error occurred," Bryant said. "I actually got $1,002.50 back. Exactly what they took from me. Thank you, Jesus."

Bryant said she immediately paid her tithes once she got her money and she is happy the problem is behind her. But many folks may be asking how did this happen, who took the money and how to prevent it.

Cyber security experts said she may have been a victim of skimming when scammers put devices in card machines to capture your information, including your pin.

For more information on card skimming, check out this Consumer I-Team story on the rise of card skimming incidents.